Quick reminder: there is much work to be done before you start composing messages. You first have to set objectives, define your positions on the issues that affect your work, identify your audiences and decision makers, and really understand their core concerns. Then you’re ready for messaging.

Here is the framework – and you can start anywhere in this list. You’ll need separate frameworks for each audience segment. THERE IS NO GENERAL PUBLIC. You must segment.

Value – This is what makes them nod in agreement when they hear it. It taps into a core concern.

Barrier – Your response when someone says “Yes, but…” to the value statement. Here’s a hot tip: The message should take the objection into account but never repeat it in your message. That’s why the “Myths and Facts” approach fails; the myth is what gets embedded in the reader’s brain.

Ask – One specific thing you want them to do. Remember that sometimes you will have to be very narrow in your ambitions. But actions build on each other over time.

Vision – Think of this as the answer to “So what?” It’s what the community or the world will look like after the change you ask for has been made.

Here is a great example. This came from SpitFire’s work with an organization opposed to the death penalty.

Value – Innocent people shouldn’t be wrongfully convicted and sentenced to die.

Barrier – More than 100 have since 1976.

Ask – Provide DNA testing to everyone accused of a capital crime.

Vision – We will have a more fair justice system.

Another reason I love this framework? It lends itself so well to infographics; simple visual statements could be paired with each message set.

What messaging framework do you use? What do you think of this one?

G+ does have some avid fans.

Many of you know I’m a great fan of BlogAid and its owner MaAnna Stephenson. MaAnna is a huge proponent of Google+ and her site is full of tips and tutorials about it. Her Facebook page has many posts about frustrations with Facebook (yes, the irony of that doesn’t escape anyone, including her) and praise for G+. The quality of interaction is higher on G+. Circles are an excellent way to organize your contacts. Hangouts are a great feature and can even be used for webinars. Communities link you to like-minded people. Last but not least, G+ is GOOGLE, and Google is God to site owners who need traffic to stay in business.

I got all that, but…

G+ was still a wasteland to me. Most of my friends and favorite colleagues weren’t there. I struggled to discover interesting contacts. I seemed to have nothing in common with 90% of the people who followed me. I followed promising-looking people and pages only to find that they never posted anything. But a few of the people I followed would never shut up, and I had to read about their kids, lunches, drinks, dinners, dogs, and cats.

Then – “Homelessness in America“

So, before you write off G+…

Search on the topics that interest you and check out a few communities. Chances are good that you will find passionate, well-read people sharing good content. Unless you choose one of the 12 or so Grumpy Cat communities.

P.S. I will give Guy Kawasaki the last word.

As quoted in a blog by John Haydon, here’s how he breaks down the purposes of the major social networks (the “Four Ps”):

Photo credit: Book jacket from “downTown U.S.A.: A Personal Journey with the Homeless,” by Susan Madden Lankford, available at http://www.humaneexposures.com/down-town-usa.html

What’s your goal for the blog? Who would it really benefit (besides your organization)?

What is the subject area? Given this focus, how will the blog inform, enlighten, and/or provoke people to action? How will it stand out from all the other noise in your space?

Who is the potential audience and how much do you know about their interests?

Who are the authors? What are their qualifications for writing? Are they familiar with blogging? Who will edit their writing?

Just to set expectations, does your audience have the potential to form a community around the blog or will they probably remain passive readers?

How will the blog fit with your other marketing tactics? Will it be part of a content marketing program)?

How often will you be able to publish new content?

What are your first three months’ worth of posts? Can you have them ready at launch?

How will you plan and track blog content?

Who will design and install the blog, and select and install plugins for subscriptions, comments, spam filters and other security features, SEO, and social sharing? Will they also be able to maintain the blog and be responsible for updates, security, and responding to technical issues?

Who will be your blog administrator, responsible for uploading posts, sharing the posts on social networks, and monitoring and responding to comments?

How will you promote the blog, especially at the launch?

It’s tempting to throw something up in a hurry in order to check “blog” off of the marketing to-do list, where it’s probably been hanging around for a few years. Just remember that the less work done on the front end, the more work has to be done later. The stakes are fairly high, too, so don’t let lack of planning lead to a waste of resources or damage to your organization’s reputation.

photo credit: Will Lion via photopin cc

Stop, drop, and roll with the news.

Probably the most talked-about blog in the nonprofit world this week was from Nancy Schwartz: How to Communicate in the Midst of Tragedy: 9-Step Checklist. Nancy says that any “business as usual” communications could potentially do more harm than good in a time of crisis. She warns everyone to put on the brakes and reconsider all scheduled activities. One of the brilliant aspects of this post is that she has organized her recommended activities into time categories: “Immediately,” “ASAP,” “Next 10-14 Days,” and “By the End of April.”

This post is a MUST READ, including the comments section, which has some debate and additional recommendations.

Don’t wait: plan, plan, plan.

One of my favorite nonprofit bloggers, Joanne Fritz, has a post that covers general recommendations for any kind of crisis, whether it’s happening outside or inside the organization (God Forbid.). Top 6 Tips for Effective Nonprofit Crisis Planning explains how you need to be an advocate for good crisis preparedness in your organization.

One of Joanne’s most valuable reminders is that the point of good crisis communication is not to completely control the message.

Because of social media, there is little chance of controlling information in a way that used to be possible. So don’t try to. But you can, through monitoring and judicious response, provide good information, fight rumors with fact, and express concern.

As Joanne says, if you prepare ahead of time, “you’ll be thanked later.”

Two other educational posts from the week.

The explosions at the Boston Marathon and the Facebook huddle talks about the activity on Facebook following the explosions in Boston.

People often complain about social media…But when you want to know if everyone’s okay, it’s the first place to go.

This post can give you some insight into the collective consciousness during a crisis, which can help you better understand how to help and not do harm with your own communications.

Thou Shalt Not Stoop to Political Point-Scoring: A journalist’s guide to tweeting during a crisis exposes media people behaving badly. But more than that, it provides some solid advice about how to participate, either as an organization or an individual. It shows how to be smart and not end up with egg on your face, or worse – contribute to panic, frustration, or even danger.

If you know of any other good or bad crisis communication examples, please share them in the comments.

Image credit: Yelena Rovenskaya on Pinterest

Ask and you shall receive.

When someone lands on your website, do you ask them to sign up for your email newsletter? When someone reads your blog, do you ask for a comment? When you want to grow your Facebook community, do you ask people to share your page? When you tweet about a cause, do you ask for an RT?

This is an update of a post I published two years ago after I heard from several “big names” in blogging and social media that you need to be explicit about what you want people to do with your content. Two years later, I’m in the middle of several campaigns for local nonprofits and I’m so glad I listened to them. Whether it’s getting a grant to feed hungry kids, selling tickets to an event to raise money for homeless shelters and services, or supporting a general fundraising campaign, my clients expect me to know how to motivate people. So I’m constantly thinking up new ways to politely, but persuasively, ask supporters to give, vote, like, retweet, forward, and share.

However, as I said in the previous version of this post, when you ask people to act, make sure it’s for an important cause, a useful piece of information, or a feel-good story. You also can’t ask the same way over and over on the same channels. This is a challenge for me now as I’m managing a Facebook voting campaign. Everyone can vote every day, and we need them to. But my team agrees that we can’t flood our social media channels with “Vote for Us!” messages. We’d lose a lot of fans very fast.

So, we’re spacing out our posts carefully and adding different kinds of content to them, such as videos. We’re also broadening the online channels to Twitter, Google+, the blog, the email newsletter, the website, and even Outlook calendar reminders to our staff. And we’re trying different “offline” channels such as signs on the agency doors and reception desk, flyers in the conference rooms, and inserting a mention in the volunteer orientation. I think my favorite is having the CEO stop the program at three recent events to explain the campaign and ask the audience to take out their smart phones and vote.

My hope is that at the end of the campaign, we will have left no stone unturned, and will have set a new standard for the breadth and depth of future campaigns.

If you liked this post, please comment, and then share it on Twitter, or Facebook, or email a friend with the link. Thanks!

photo credit: FotoRita [Allstar maniac] via photopin cc

I’ve used Reader for years to manage my personal blog subscriptions. I wasn’t alone in being upset. Google’s action spawned millions of angry tweets, blog posts, and videos, and an online petition. In Still Hope for Google Reader Today, Lori Randall Stradtman linked to the hilarious Hitler video (which uses footage from the Tarantino movie, “Inglorious Bastards”) and the petition. I’m not bothering to sign it; I think resistance is futile.

On the advice of colleagues, I switched my personal feeds to Feedly. I heard rumors that Feedly was ready when the Google announcement was made, adding more servers and implementing an automatic conversion. In fact, the transition was seamless and I like the friendly, open interface of Feedly better. It looks like a modern app, not some legacy software program from the 1990s.

Then I had to figure out what to do about Feedburner. When this blog was created, Feedburner was the original subscription service.  I have newer subscribers through FeedBlitz (not owned by Google). My WordPress guru, MaAnna Stephenson of BlogAid, has been predicting Feedburner’s demise for months and published an excellent report, the Ultimate Feedburner Alternatives Guide. I’ll admit it – I read her guide and then opted for the lowest tech solution: adding the JetPack WordPress plugin and asking you to resubscribe using the new “widget” at the top of the right sidebar where it says “Subscribe Via Email.” You only need to do this if you subscribed with Feedburner. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience.

Do you have a WordPress blog and need some guidance? Check out BlogAid. 

THANK YOU for being here!

It’s my job to read and share bad news.

We are still in the worst economic downtown since the Great Depression. Income inequality – or the “wealth gap” as some call it – is growing in this country. More people are in poverty than in 1989: 15 percent of Americans, or 46.2 million people, live below the federal poverty line. And the poverty line is so low for Silicon Valley, where I live, that it is almost a useless measure. If you’re a data wonk, read the U.S. Census Statistical Abstract on poverty.

I manage social media accounts and write for nonprofits in Silicon Valley. I scan reports,  opinion articles, and blogs with grim statistics every day. I see videos and photos of poor and homeless people. I keep pushing the information out to our followers and fans in the hopes that more people become aware of our pressing social problems and offer their help.

I also see much written about the soon-to-be-poor. As one commenter in the film, American Winter, said:

“For the middle class in this country, we have a one-strike-and-you’re-out economy…The most endangered species in America is the middle class family.”

When I hear about middle class families descending into poverty, I often think, “There but for the grace of God go I.” Do you ever have the same feeling? That’s fear talking, but it can also turn into compassion, which we really need if we’re going to fix anything.

But I also have to sustain hope.

There are millions of people working at the local, national, regional, and global levels to eradicate poverty. I try to convince myself that we humans are an ingenious species and that some day, solutions will be found. In the meantime, my occasional sadness underscores the importance of balancing the positive and negative in nonprofit communications. We need to share stories of hope and success in the midst of all the scary facts.

We must believe we can make things better.

photo credit: Alex E. Proimos via photopin cc

Why teamwork makes a difference

I recently got an early morning email from a client who heard a report about his organization on our local public radio station. It was a good interview and great local media exposure. Unfortunately, this happened on the one morning I had not listened obsessively to NPR because I needed to concentrate on client work. I was caught short but after his communication I shared the interview on Facebook and Twitter, and the Facebook post created a high level of engagement.

The day before, his boss had told me about an upcoming action in our community that would affect their clients. The CEO had put together an official response so they would be ready. My client copied me on their emails so I understood the situation and their position. I was made aware that they wanted to stay out of the media spotlight–and that meant social media, too. Knowing when not to post is very important.

Since then, I’ve received a number of emails with good ideas (and photos!) for additional posts from other staff members and volunteers. These people really want to spread the good news and the right news. They already had good-sized followings on two Facebook pages but not enough staff time/energy to maintain them. I’m stepping in for the time being to rebuild awareness and community.

When I take a new social media client, I research and plan. I interview the client about likes, dislikes, and hopes for their social media presence. I learn about the mission and key audiences, read their communications, check media reports about them, and review what they’ve already done in social media. I am prepared.

I always have a list of ideas for posts and tweets, some of which are for specific times and some of which can be used on any given day. I also set up Google Alerts and follow their leaders on news.le. But these sources are not always timely enough. So when it comes to breaking news, the client’s participation is key. When you outsource social media, you need to stay in touch. For me, just a quick email or text  from my client is all that’s needed.

When it doesn’t work so well

I have another client who rarely communicates with me about what’s going on. Their website is not updated very often, and they don’t have a blog. I know a lot about their work and hunt down any useful information I can find with help from Google Alerts, but it’s still difficult to come up with original content. As a result, their Twitter account tends to have a higher proportion of retweets. Their following is growing slowly, as are their @ mentions, and not at the rate I’d like to see. I hope we can turn the situation around to increase their credibility and engagement levels. It just requires more teamwork.

Is outsourcing a good answer for social media?

There is a raging debate in the marketing and social media communities about this. I think it can work if the client is supportive and communicative, and the consultant is a mature individual who understands the client’s business, is a good team player, and can think strategically. What do you think? Any personal successes or failures with social media outsourcing?

photo credit: eyewashdesign: A. Golden via photopin cc

“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences.” Audre Lorde

Yesterday, I attended a presentation at the monthly Association for Fundraising Professionals – Silicon Valley luncheon about “Donor Cultivation in a Multicultural World.” The speaker was Steve Lew, Senior Project Director for CompassPoint Nonprofit Services and Director of the Fundraising Academy for Communities of Color. Over the past two years, I’ve done some learning and some work in multiculturalism and have written three blogs based on the work of Eric H. F. Law, who teaches about diversity and leadership. I mention this because the Steve’s talk was based on the same idea as Eric’s work.

Multiculturalism is not about “them,” it’s about us.

Yes. Even though the presentation description promised that we would “learn ways to cultivate relationships with donors and prospective donors of different cultural, social, and economic backgrounds,” Steve’s focus was not on teaching about various cultures or about fundraising tactics. It was on helping us understand that in order to remain relevant and to make connections (with donors or anyone else) in an increasingly multicultural world, we need to be open to changing ourselves.

Cultural competence is not enough.

Steve said there is a difference between intellectually knowing another culture (“cultural knowledge” or “cultural competence”) and being able to truly relate to it (“cultural humility”). As Steve explained, the concept came from the health care community, originally appearing in a paper by Drs. Melanie Tervalon and Jann Murray-Garcia. A summary of their paper describes cultural humility in this way:

[Cultural humility is] a lifelong process of self-reflection and self-critique. The starting point for such an approach is not an examination of the client’s belief system, but rather having health care/service providers give careful consideration to their assumptions and beliefs that are embedded in their own understandings and goals of their encounter with the client.

We all hold different ideas about various groups in our society. Rather than feel guilty about this, Steve suggested that we get to work on understanding our own assumptions and stereotypes. As an exercise, he asked us to break into groups of two and ask/answer these questions:

• Are you aware of having a cultural lens (i.e., biases)?
• What cultural and social identities inform how you relate to others?

Those questions are often difficult for people of white/European descent whose families have been in the U.S. for many generations, because we often don’t have much ethnic identity left. But Steve explained that culture means much more than race or ethnicity. It also includes economic status, education, religion, gender identity and sexual orientation, geography, and much more. That gives us a lot of room for developing biases.

“Think inclusion” in all you do.

Cultural humility can be a key asset within extended families, workplaces, faith communities, neighborhoods, and just about every other arena in which we conduct our lives. In order to achieve it, we naturally need to seek more personal contact with people of other cultures. Steve urged us to reach out to ask questions, listen, and share your own experiences when asked. I would add that it helps to remember that these experiences are a gift you give yourself; they will help you become a more successful and well-rounded individual.

Your turn: how are you making meaningful connections across cultural divides?

P.S. If you’re interested, here are links to my previous blogs on multiculturalism and communication: What’s Your Communications Context?, Respectful Communication Guidelines, and Three Things You Didn’t Know About Me

photo credit: Kennesaw State University via photopin cc

What is a communications audit?

A communications audit evaluates the scope and effectiveness of your external communications. It covers more than the types of communications you produce and how often you send them out, however. It also reviews your messaging and your branding.

As with a financial audit, the most effective results come from engaging an outside consultant. Your CEO, staff, or board may have good insights, but you really need fresh eyes and ideas, too. A good auditor is very experienced, and might even had stood in your shoes as a communications director or manager. In addition to offering honest criticism, he or she should offer positive steps you can immediately take to improve your communications program.

What is the scope of a good audit?

A good audit covers every external communication you produce in print or online (website, video, blog, social media, email, etc.). It should answer the following questions:

• What is our communications “hub” and is this the right choice for us?
• Have we chosen the right communications channels? Are the channels well integrated?
• Do we present a clear, consistent image (brand) and messages across our channels?
• Are we targeting our audiences with the communications channels to which they are most receptive, or are we ignoring their preferences?
• Are we producing each communication with the right frequency?
• Are we providing enough fresh content–updates and news about our work?
• Are we telling enough of the right stories?
• Do we have the right calls to action in each piece?
• Are we using our mission statement, tagline, vision statement, or other key messages appropriately?
• What writing style do we use? What kind of personality does it project?
• Is our content easy to scan and easy to read?
• Do we use good grammar? Is our writing free of typos?
• Do our communications look and feel similar?
• Is our design system appealing, uncluttered, and consistent with our brand?
• Do we use enough of the right kind of visuals?
• How successful is our media relations work? Does the press represent us as leaders or experts?
• How should we measure overall communications effectiveness?
• Can we do more with our communications budget and staff?
• How are our “competitors” or other organizations like us communicating with their audiences? Are they more or less effective than us?

There is no “one size fits all” communications audit.

I’m going to be candid here. I have seen some boilerplate recommendations from nonprofit marketing experts who charge thousands of dollars for lists of standard recommendations I could write up in an hour.  This is not what you need. You want an auditor that will understand who you are trying to reach and why, review your existing communications in depth, and write a set of custom recommendations that fits your audiences, your goals, and your brand.

Please don’t settle for less than that.

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